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Paul Kennedy, Barbara J. Vigil vie for Supreme Court bench

By Milan Simonich / Texas-New Mexico Newspapers

Posted:
10/11/2012 01:00:00 AM MDT

Read a candidate biography on Barbara VigilRead a candidate biography on Paul KennedyEditor's note: This is part of an ongoing series of stories the Sun-News will run daily looking at the local races in the upcoming election.

SANTA FE - Paul Kennedy, appointed to the New Mexico Supreme Court by the governor in September, hopes to break a 32-year Republican losing streak in the fall election.

No member of his party has been elected to the state's highest court since 1980. Kennedy knows the history, but he says partisan labels should not matter in judicial races.

"I've appeared before bad Democratic judges and bad Republican judges, good Democratic judges and good Republican judges. All I ever cared about was whether the judge was impartial," Kennedy said.

A lawyer for 36 years, Kennedy is on his second stint as an appointed state Supreme Court justice. He replaced Patricio M. Serna, who retired at the end of August.

This time Kennedy is running for the court against Democrat Barbara J. Vigil, a district judge of Santa Fe, Rio Arriba and Los Alamos counties.
Both candidates claim the edge in the same key area.

"What sets me apart from her is vastly more experience," said Kennedy, 63.

Vigil, 53, makes that same case for herself.

"My judicial experience over a dozen years and a proven record set me apart," she said.

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"My record shows that I have a good judicial temperament, that I have been fair and impartial, and that I have demonstrated integrity."

Vigil estimated that she has handled 15,000 cases since becoming a judge. Her docket in the civil division of the First Judicial District now has about 1,800 cases, some as simple as a name change but others mind bending in complexity.

As a district judge, she handles cases of original jurisdiction as well as appeals from lower courts.

By Vigil's count, only 136 of her 15,000 cases have been appealed, or fewer than 1 percent. One of her high-profile decisions reached the state Supreme Court this year.

Vigil had decided that a young woman named Jhette Diamond, who legally emancipated herself from an abusive household at age 16, was nonetheless entitled to receive child support payments from her mother.

The state Court of Appeals overturned Vigil's ruling. But the New Mexico Supreme Court, in a 5-0 decision, decided that Vigil was right and the appeals court was wrong. "We do not see management of one's financial affairs and entitlement to support as inherently contradictory," the Supreme Court said in deciding the case as Vigil had.

Kennedy was not on the Supreme Court when the Diamond case was heard.

Vigil, who worked for law firms, the state attorney general and then as a solo practitioner, was appointed a district judge in May 2000 by then-governor Gary Johnson, who was a Republican.

She spent 10 years as a judge of the children's court, presiding over neglect, child abuse and juvenile delinquency cases. Vigil has since moved to the civil division, and for the last 17 months has been chief judge of the First Judicial District.

Vigil says her courtroom can be populated by people who are angry, frustrated or in personal crisis. One of her strengths, she said, is finding fairness by applying facts and the law in those pressurized circumstances.

Kennedy also was an appointee of then-governor Johnson. Johnson chose Kennedy to serve on the state Supreme Court for three months in 2002. Kennedy did not seek election to the court then.

Raised in Philadelphia, Kennedy graduated from St. Joseph's University in his hometown, then joined the Marine Corps during the war with Vietnam.

He said he had a lottery number that made him a certainty to be drafted by some branch of the military, so he decided to enlist in a quality organization.

After serving two years as a Marine, Kennedy went on to law school, then moved to Albuquerque after graduating. He never served in Vietnam.

Kennedy was a public defender in state and federal courts. Then he entered private practice, handling both criminal and civil cases.

One of his best-known cases was the longest criminal trial in the history of New Mexico's federal court. Kennedy represented Gabriel Rodriguez-Aguirre, who was charged with 17 counts of violating federal drug laws.

The trial began in January 1994 and lasted six months. Jurors heard from more than 300 witnesses.

They deliberated for six weeks, but could not reach a verdict on most charges. The judge declared a mistrial.

Kennedy was a trailblazer on another famous New Mexico case in 2005 - the impeachment proceedings against then-state treasurer Robert Vigil. Kennedy served as special counsel to a committee of the state House of Representatives.

Robert Vigil resigned from office before the impeachment proceedings formally began in the House. A federal jury later convicted him of one charge of 24 brought by the U.S. attorney.

Kennedy's structuring of an impeachment investigation was a roadmap for legislators last year when they began considering whether then-Public Regulation Commissioner Jerome D. Block Jr. should be removed from office. Block resigned and pleaded guilty to felonies, ending the impeachment process.

Barbara Vigil is using vacation time to campaign across the state. Kennedy says he probably will send out mailers about his candidacy.

"Time is short and there is no money for TV (advertising) at this stage," he said.

The five-member Supreme Court now is composed of three Democrats, Republican Kennedy and Justice Charles Daniels, who switched his voter registration from Democrat to "Decline to State," an independent standing.

Milan Simonich, Santa Fe Bureau chief of Texas-New Mexico Newspapers, can be reached at msimonich@tnmnp.com or 505-820-6898. His blog is at nmcapitolreport.com